Spark
by Rebecca Hb
Summary: A rainy morning on Ember Island during Ursa's pregnancy.


**Spark**

###

Ozai woke to find his bed empty, and the bedroom dark as night. He blinked owlishly then padded over to a window to brush aside the gauzy thin curtains. It was dark outside, the heavy grey of a gathering storm. The garden sparkled with wetness, and there were puddles all around. It had rained once already today.

With the clouds, he couldn't make out the position of the sun, but this had to be later than he'd slept in months. Sunrise usually woke him.

He let the curtain drop and went to find some clothes. As he did up the clasps on his robes, rain began to patter on the roof in a steady murmur. He smiled and went to look for Ursa.

They had retired to this little bungalow on a remote corner of Ember Island for the second half of her pregnancy. This was her third, and between the four months at the Palace and the two months here on the island, this child had lived longer than the two before it.

He found Ursa on the verandah, sitting in one of the cane rocking chairs. He paused in the doorway to admire her figure. Pregnancy may have made his wife irritable and tired, but the curve of her stomach proudly proclaimed their child. This one would be a strong heir; he'd felt the child kick as he lay with Ursa last night.

If this one lived.

"Husband." Ursa turned to look at him. Her hair looked unbrushed, and Ozai vanished into the bungalow to find a brush.

He returned and began to run it through her hair. "Wife."

The rain came down harder.

Her eyes closed as he brushed her hair, and she made soft sounds of contentment. He tried to deal with knots gently, resorting to fingers when the blasted things just laughed at the bristles of the brush. It was soothing work, even as the wind picked up and began to blow gusts of rain on them.

His skin prickled underneath his robe, and Ozai paused in his brushing to look out at the storm. Lightning was coming. He'd taught himself to predict the strike of the wild, cold fire as a boy, and it had never left him.

Ursa tipped her face up to him, and lightning flashed out in the dark. The thunder came so loud, he could feel it in his bones.

Her eyes widened, and she pressed a hand to her stomach. "Well, you heard that, didn't you?"

Ozai smiled and ran the brush through her hair again. "Now the child just needs to learn to feel the lightning itself."

Ursa chuckled. "He won't be doing that for a long time yet, Ozai."

"So certain it's a boy," Ozai murmured. He laid the brush aside and went to kneel in front of her, urging her to shift forward slightly so he could rub the part of her back against the chair. His cheek grazed the red robe covering her belly.

"Your line and mine both favor sons as the firstborn," Ursa replied, her fingers resting on his hair. "This one will be born and born alive. I won't allow anything less."

"Do you hear that, my son?" Ozai said. "Your mother will move the world to see you live."

She laughed, the first time in months, the sound rich and beautiful. "I'll shake the foundations of the world to bring this boy out alive."

He smiled up at her. "Let it be worth it then." The coming lightning prickled his skin as he drew his hands along her belly. "Let me give him a knack with the cold fire he will never lose."

"Ozai..." she said warningly.

"It's all right, darling," he said as the lightning crashed. A spark sprang to life in his mouth, and he rose to kiss her. She startled as the barely-born lightning flicked into her, and her hands dug into his shoulders hard.

The kiss broke, and blue fire sprang to life in her hands. "Ozai! You- idiot! What if you killed the child?"

He laughed softly and stepped back. "Burn me then, Ursa, if he doesn't kick at the next flash."

Sheets of rain struck his back and hair, soaked him. But it was almost a relief compared to the gathering of another lightning strike. Certainly a relief compared to the restrained fear in Ursa's eyes. (To the fear in his own heart that perhaps, just perhaps, he'd been wrong.)

Lightning crashed, and Ursa gasped. She touched her stomach tenderly, then looked up at him with wonder. "You have lightning in your veins, husband. That's the only way he could have lived."

Ozai smiled and knelt before her again, pressing a single kiss to her belly. "He has my lightning and your soul to bring him into this world, darling. He'll live."

"We'll see," Ursa said quietly. "Don't tempt those who listen by boasting." Her hands settled on his hair again. "-Not your soul to bring him forth, Ozai?"

"No," he said, lifting his eyes to meet hers. "You have mine, Ursa, and no one else ever will."

**-End-**


End file.
